Faulty thinking about prayer in schools

Is the removal of prayer from public schools really the start of demise of discipline?

One of the most telling remarks is when somebody bemoans the lack of discipline in public schools–and even school shootings–by saying, "It all started when they took prayer out of schools."

Such a remark reveals two things:

For one, the average American's lack of scientific method of thinking. To pick one item like the removal of prayer and to insist that it is the cause for the demise of discipline in public schools is like saying long hair caused the 1960s.

Secondly, such a remark is usually attended by poor theology, as in: Removal of prayer means removal of God.

To limit the graciousness of God only to those who summon the divine being like ringing for a butler is pretty thin theology.

Rather, there is a practical reality to the way youths conduct themselves, and it isn't whether or not they go to church or whether they pray in school. To borrow a phrase from politics (It's the economy, stupid!)–"It's the family, stupid!"

No religious belief, no church-going, no amount of praying molds the character of a young person so much as what he or she actually experiences. And the most direct good or bad that any youth experiences is–the family.

For example, one of the most important things young people must learn–and which today so many are NOT learning–and thus there are fistfights in schools and worse–is how to deal with disappointment (when you're getting ridiculed, when you fail at something, when you feel you are losing an argument)–in short, how to deal with a jolt to one's pride. Nobody learns how to deal with disappointment as a subject in school. We learn coping strategies only by example–from adults–and from peers who have themselves learned it from adults. And the adults that youths see most often are–family.

And the sad truth is that many adults are the emotional equivalent of children. They can't think of how to deal with wounded pride other than punching–or worse.